Corruption in Alabama: Not For vs. Against
Interesting editorial in today’s Decatur Daily about the foot dragging in the Alabama legislature on ethics reform bills.
No legislator may be for corruption but not enough House members were against it to force Judiciary Committee Chairman Marcel Black, D-Tuscumbia, to bring the legislation up until last week, before time began running out.
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The legislation would put a cap of $50 a day and $250 per year on the amount a lobbyist can spend to entertain a public official. That sounds like a lot of money but it’s peanuts to what present law allows. The amount lobbyists can spend presently is obscene. They have to report only anything they spend more than $250 per day on a single public official.
You do the math.
You know, I think the $250 per day lobbying limit should be put into a different context. A lobbyist can currently spend $91,250 per year entertaining a single public official and not have to report a single penny of it. No wonder the legislators have no real desire to derail that gravy train.
This seems like what LA Gov. Bobby Jindal wanted to get passed in the LA Congress. We’d be wise to adopt a lot of his ethic reforms.
The main difference I’m seeing is that our AL Gov. doesn’t have the same drive or leadership.
Old Prosecutor commented on my ethics reform post at Left in Alabama this weekend, noting that with good government liberals, moderates, and conservatives pushing it, you’d think there would be some movement.
But good intentions seem to be no match for giant wads of cash big enough to dazzle an Alabama legislator.
I think it’s a terrific campaign issue for anyone running against incumbents, but those guys (and gals) are too busy sticking there hands in their pockets (and heads in the sand) to realize it.
darn… typo alert… I do know the difference between “there” and “their.” Unfortunately, my fast typing fingers do not.
I would love to hear Rep. Mike Ball comments on this subject. he strikes me as an honest enough guy to tell it like it is.
My theory is that a legislator gets to Montgomery, where folks start wining and dining them, they get free Auburn and Alabama football tickets + parking, free use of skyboxes at Turner Field etc. All the time this is happening the lobbyists are telling them how smart and powerful they are. (out in the rural parts of Alabama we call this some serious asskissing).
Lo and behold the legislator comes to feel that such treatment is only his due and giving it up is unthinkable.
And so it will continue until it costs some legislators their seats, then you will see some ethics reform and posthaste.